Greek Mythology - Hercules

2nd Labor

The Hydra of Lerna - Η Λερναία Ύδρα

In English

In a swamp close to the town of Lerna, there was a monster that had
a body like a snake and 9 dragon heads. It was called the "Hydra of Lerna".
Eurystheus sent Hercules to kill this monster. This was a difficult
task because one of the Hydra's heads was immortal.
Hercules took his friend Iolaos to help him with this difficult task.
Soon they found the monster.
They lit a fire and Hercules lit up his arrows from that fire. He started
throwing the arrows at the Hydra but all this did was to make the snake like creature
wilder and more fierce.

Hercules started to hit the heads with his club and cut them off.
For hours he tried to kill the beast, but when he would cut one
head off, two would grow in its place.
They had to think of something else.
Suddenly Hercules had an idea. He would cut off each head and his friend Iolaos, would burn the neck with a
lit piece of wood.
One by one, Hydra's heads were falling on the ground. Finally the immortal
head was cut off and Hydra fell lifeless in front of them.
Hercules opened up its belly
and dipped his arrows in the Hydras poisoned blood.
Then he buried the monster and put a big rock on it,
so nobody could ever exhume it. He returned to Tirintha (Tiryns) awaiting his next task...

Words you Need to Learn

Capital letters is where the word is accented.ee or i is pronounced as the ee in word beet.e as the e in the word bet.a as the a in the word father.o as the o in the word only.ou as the ou in the word Lou.x as the x in the word fox.th or th like the th in think.th or th like the th in this.
(underline)
Where you see a " y " or a (red) " g " in the phonetics for that
word, that " g " is
pronounced like the y in yes, or
like the w in wad